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Notes: The majority of laboratory centrifuges have no provisions for observation of the process of sedimentation and fractionation which goes on in the test tube in the darkness of a "black box." Some centrifuges have a transparent cover or a magnifier in the cover to watch a blurred picture of the layers in the moving test tube which provides little information. The stop-motion effect with the test tube can a priori be based on either mechanical or electronic stroboscopy. To implement the mechanical stroboscopy, a standard microscope illuminator with a diaphragm is attached to the wall of the centrifuge. Through a hole in the wall the illuminator projects a cone of light with the diameter 0.1 mm at the top of the cone. The cone intersects with a 0.1 mm hole in the test-tube holder. The test tube is illuminated at the moment of intersection. Its content is observed through a magnifier on the cover of the centrifuge. The holder has a cut-out window to see the test tube. The flash at the hole–beam intersection is 0.5 μs, which is many times shorter than the duration of a xenon-tube stroboscopic flash (10–20 μs). This is the main reason why industrial stroboscopes cannot be used for stop-motion illumination in a centrifuge. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Prototypes of magnetically suspended rotors for centrifugation of cells, organic and inorganic solutions, and gases are Fe-containing glass and metallic hollow microspheres 0.1–2 mm in diameter, composite steel-glass disks up to 1 cm, and microspheres of porous steel and Fe-impregnated porous glass. Fe-coated microcapsules with cells can be used for lower centrifugal forces. Predictable applications include cell hybridization and homogenization, spinning of samples at the "magic angle'' in nuclear-magnetic resonance (NMR), intensification of nuclear fusion by high-speed rotation of microspheres with deuterium and tritium, and other examples. Rotor contents can be examined under the microscope during centrifugation, or the spinning rotor can be frozen and its contents freeze dried for further examination.

Notes: Olive trees are often subjected to low temperatures during winter. To quantify the effects of low temperatures on the water relations of olive trees, we studied the responses to low soil temperatures on winter days of variable evaporative demand (ET0) in 1-year-old potted olive (Oleo europaea L. cv. Picual) trees in 1996 and 1997. Low night (2.5 and 5.2°C) but ambient day soil temperatures (above 10°C) did not affect stomatal conductance (gs), leaf (Ψleaf) and stem (Ψstem) water potentials. Soil temperature levels inducing water stress in olive trees were determined for winter days with ET0 typical for southern Spain (ET0= 1.5 ± 0.3 mm day−1). Leaf and stem water potential decreased and root hydraulic resistance (rroot) increased when trees were exposed to night and day soil temperatures below 10°C. Stomatal conductance was not affected at soil temperatures between 6.4 and 10°C, but decreased at temperatures below 6.4°C. The soil temperature levels affecting the water uptake of olive trees remained relatively constant over the range of ET0 of 1-2 mm day−1 during winter and early spring months. However, the soil temperature influencing gs appeared to be more variable and was affected by ET0. Olive tree recovery from low soil temperature stress depended on stress duration and severity and interacted with ET0. Recovery of ψ started already during the stress period, probably induced by stomatal closure and high rroot, thus allowing tree rehydration overnight. Root hydraulic resistance contributed the major part of whole-tree hydraulic resistance in response to cold stress, accounting for 76 and 89% at 6.4 and 4.6°C, respectively; which indicates that rroot is the primary control of the water status in olive trees under low temperatures.

Notes: CO2 exchange rates (CO2 evolution) of late-maturing cv. Cal Red peaches, exposed to different photon flux densities, were simulated from 24 days after flowering (DAF) until harvest by using light and temperature response curves measured on attached fruits in the field at biweekly intervals. The daily patterns of dark respiration rates per unit dry weight indicated their dependence on temperatures. Fruit CO2 exchange rates in light were also affected by photosynthetic photon flux densities. Daily photosynthetic rates per unit dry weight and per fruit were significantly lower in shaded fruits receiving 7% of the full daily sunlight compared to fruits exposed to 35% sunlight. However, the difference in photosynthetic rates in peach fruits receiving 21 and 35% of total daily sunlight was small. Within the last 4 weeks before harvest, weekly carbohydrate requirements for the production of dry matter rose rapidly in cv. Cal Red peaches and were related to high carbohydrate accumulations, especially of sucrose, in the peach mesocarp. Weekly photosynthetic contribution of late-maturing cv. Cal Red peaches to these carbohydrate accumulations increased up to 115 DAF. A decline in photosynthetic contributions between 115 DAF and harvest was related to decreasing photosynthetic activities in association with declining chlorophyll contents. Photosynthesis of late-maturing cv. Cal Red peaches provided 3–9% of the weekly fruit carbohydrate requirements early in the season and 8–15% in the midseason depending on fruit exposure to light. Photosynthesis of mature fruits contributed 3–5% of the total fruit carbohydrate requirements. Since fruit photosynthetic rates approach saturation at a photosynthetic photon flux density of about 600 μmol m2 s−2, the difference in weekly photosynthetic contributions was small between exposed and partially exposed (35 and 21% sunlight, respectively) peach fruits. However, a shaded fruit (7% sunlight) supplied significantly less of its weekly carbohydrate requirements through photosynthesis compared to exposed fruits. During the growing period of 24 DAF until harvest, dry matter accumulation of latematuring cv. Cal Red peaches accounted for 78% of the total carbohydrate requirements and 22% was used in respiration. Fruit photosynthesis of shaded peach fruit, partially exposed fruit and exposed fruit (receiving 7. 21 and 35% of full sunlight over the day, respectively) contributed 5. 8 and 9%, respectively, of the total growth and maintenance carbohydrate requirements during the growing season.

Notes: CO2 exchange rates per unit dry weight, measured in the field on attached fruits of the late-maturing Cal Red peach cultivar, at 1200 μmol photons m−2S−1 and in dark, and photosynthetic rates, calculated by the difference between the rates of CO2 evolution in light and dark, declined over the growing season. Calculated photosynthetic rates per fruit increased over the season with increasing fruit dry matter, but declined in maturing fruits apparently coinciding with the loss of chlorophyll. Slight net fruit photosynthetic rates ranging from 0. 087 ± 0. 06 to 0. 003 ± 0. 05 nmol CO2 (g dry weight)−1 S−1 were measured in midseason under optimal temperature (15 and 20°C) and light (1200 μmol photons m−2 S−1) conditions. Calculated fruit photosynthetic rates per unit dry weight increased with increasing temperatures and photon flux densities during fruit development. Dark respiration rates per unit dry weight doubled within a temperature interval of 10°C; the mean seasonal O10 value was 2. 03 between 20 and 30°C. The highest photosynthetic rates were measured at 35°C throughout the growing season. Since dark respiration rates increased at high temperatures to a greater extent than CO2 exchange rates in light, fruit photosynthesis was apparently stimulated by high internal CO2 concentrations via CO2 refixation. At 15°C, fruit photosynthetic rates tended to be saturated at about 600 μmol photons m−2 S−1. Young peach fruits responded to increasing ambient CO2 concentrations with decreasing net CO2 exchange rates in light, but more mature fruits did not respond to increases in ambient CO2. Fruit CO2 exchange rates in the dark remained fairly constant, apparently uninfluenced by ambient CO2 concentrations during the entire growing season. Calculated fruit photosynthetic rates clearly revealed the difference in CO2 response of young and mature peach fruits. Photosynthetic rates of younger peach fruits apparently approached saturation at 370 μl CO21−2. In CO2 free air, fruit photosynthesis was dependent on CO2 refixation since CO2 uptake by the fruits from the external atmosphere was not possible. The difference in photosynthetic rates between fruits in CO2-free air and 370 μl CO2 1−1 indicated that young peach fruits were apparently able to take up CO2 from the external atmosphere. CO2 uptake by peach fruits contributed between 28 and 16% to the fruit photosynthetic rate early in the season, whereas photosynthesis in maturing fruits was supplied entirely by CO2 refixation.

Notes: Abstract There is probably only one information system in living nature — the macromolecular system including DNA, RNA and protein. Its unity for the genetic and nervous activity can be followed in the storage of information (heredity, memory) and in its processing (recombination and selection of both genetic and mental information). According to the hypothesis of the code of nerve impulses, nucleotide triplets of the nucleus, or more likely amino acids of the surface protein of the impulse generating area of a neuron, generate a limited variety of interspike intervals so that each amino acid corresponds to a certain interspike interval and this particular interval initiates by means of a specific neurotransmitter, the synthesis of the same amino acid (or nucleotide triplet) in the postsynaptic neuron. Thus, a series of impulses produces in the postsynaptic neuron a sequence of amino acids in a form of a polypeptide identical to the polypeptide of the presynaptic neuron.

Notes: Abstract 32-bp inactivating deletion in the β-chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) gene, common in Nothern European populations, is associated with reduced HIV-1 transmission risk and delayed disease progression. We have studied the deletion distribution in many populations in Eurasia by polymerase chain reaction analysis of 531 DNA samples representing West and East Siberian, Central Asian, and Far Eastern parts of Russia. An unusually high frequency (11.1%) of the deleted variant in natives of West Siberia, of Finno-Ugrian descent, was observed. Furthermore, the deletion was infrequent in indigenous populations of Central Asia, East Siberia, the Russian Far East, and Canada. We conclude that the Δccr5 distribution is limited primarily to Europeans and related western Siberian Finno-Ugrian populations, with a sharp negative gradient toward the east along the territory of Russian Asia.

Notes: Abstract Prolonged heat treatments in oxygen lead to a substantial increase of the diamagnetic signal of superconducting YBa2Cu3O x due to the decrease of the amount of defects and to the development of Josephson-like contacts between homogeneous superconducting regions in the sample. The superconducting-glass features are expected to be considerably reduced in well crystallized samples at least at liquid nitrogen temperature.